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Volume 6, Issue 1 (2017)

Dearest Readers—

Welcome to the eleventh issue of Gandy Dancer. We are happy to have you with us, and despite the din of construction trucks that greets us as we pass Sturges Quad on our way to class, are pleased to announce that—as of this moment—Emmeline the bear is in one piece atop her perch in the Main Street fountain. Throughout the past three years, Geneseo has been more or less in a constant state of tearing down and building back up again, but, as we have come to learn as student editors, this process can be one of the most essential for growth. Our editorial staff has been thoroughly moved by the depth and daring of this semester’s submissions, and narrowing these to fit the journal’s space constraints has been an arduous task, to say the least. Huddled over our laptops in circles of unwieldy swivel-seat desk chairs, we’ve been deeply humbled throughout this process. Though we were both part of the Gandy team last spring, we found ourselves entirely unprepared for the emotional intensity the managing editor role would bring. As assembly of this volume nears completion, we are reminded of the reason we come together to create in the first place. Perhaps the gifted Latino poet and professor Martín Espada articulated this best: “We write to make the invisible, visible.”

Whether the “invisible” Espada refers to is a personal experience buried deep within gray matter, a new avenue of thought that effectively disrupts ordinary life, or a bygone detail lost to the past, it is the writer’s craft to transform the blank page into a lasting vessel. A successful artist boldly places the unexamined at center stage. Jennifer Galvão’s “Liturgy of Hours” for instance, tears off the cloak of invisibility (if you will), using subtlety of detail and delicate observation to challenge readers to reconsider what it might be like to live with burdens of silence, secrecy, and shame. Through his poem, “the trickle,” Noah Mazer visits the seemingly inexplicable tie between place and self, offering a visceral sensory exploration of an almost chaotic unease aroused by separation from the grounding elements of spaces associated with home. Arnold Barretto similarly disrupts the comfortable with his provocative visual art collage titled, “I’m not being racist. It’s just my preference, you’re not my type.” In her essay, “Where a Boundary,” Elizabeth Pellegrino also challenges the status quo, employing white space, sound, and creative connections to create a solid bridge—not only between genres and passions—but also between societal expectation and the richness of expansion brought about by the subversion of set expectations. This piece is as ambitious as it is compelling, successfully stretching the limits of language and giving us goosebumps along the way.

The relative transience of our little town’s façade functions symbolically for us in two significant ways: on a microcosmic scale, each work of art may require countless drafts, and even failed attempts, before the artist feels satisfied, thereby requiring many instances of “tearing down” and “building up” again. Panning out, we see that Gandy Dancer is also in a constant state of flux, its vision perpetually evolving, as team members are cycled through each semester and managing editors are replaced yearly. This, we feel, is a necessary part of what keeps our journal’s identity fresh—not a necessary evil, but a necessary good—each new incarnation allowing space for further growth.

As you thumb through the pages that follow, we sincerely hope you are as moved as we were by the contributions of the many talented SUNY scholars who made this issue possible. Thank you for joining us on our journey; we both feel so privileged to be a part of this.

Yours,

Meghan Fellows & Lily Codera

November 2017

Poetry

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Garden of Eden
Lauren Sarrantonio, SUNY New Paltz

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When I'm Talking about Reality and the Bees Keep Buzzing
Finola McDonald, SUNY Purchase College

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As She Was
Isabella Higgins, SUNY Geneseo

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Something Borrowed
Marley DeRosia, SUNY Geneseo

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the trickle
Noah Mazer, SUNY Geneseo

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gabrg3
Natalie Hayes, SUNY Geneseo

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A Priest // Chiclets // Kneeling
Joseph Sigurdson, SUNY Oswego

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Peripheral Instinct
Carrie Anne Potter, SUNY Geneseo

Fiction

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A Liturgy of Hours
Jennifer Galvão, SUNY Geneseo

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Savior
Joseph Sigurdson, SUNY Oswego

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Lila in the Window
Allison Giese, SUNY New Paltz

Creative Nonfiction

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256 Hillary Lane
Emma Gears, SUNY Geneseo

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Where a Boundary
Elizabeth Pellegrino, SUNY Geneseo

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Chicken Feet
Simone Louie, SUNY Geneseo

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The Indestructible Man
Marissa Canarelli, SUNY Geneseo

Art

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girl // rape
Azure Arnot, SUNY Plattsburgh

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El Trabajaor // Tierra y Sol
Cindy Castillo, SUNY Geneseo

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Love // Confusion
James Blanchard, SUNY Plattsburgh

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Missed Train to Tainan
Savannah Lagmay, SUNY Geneseo

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America // Lavender Cross
Kayla Tuttle, SUNY Plattsburgh

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Bright night city lights // Róc Rách
Jackie Phuong Ta, SUNY Plattsburgh

Postscript

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Webbed
Laurie J. Jackson, SUNY Oswego

Review

Interview

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Interview with Anne Valente
Meghan Fellows, SUNY Geneseo

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Managing Editors
Lily Codera and Meghan Fellows
Fiction Editor
Elizabeth Verrastro
Creative Nonfiction Editor
Isabel Keane
Poetry Editor
Rachel Britton
Art Editor
Sara Munjack Public Relations Manager
Heather Molzon
Fiction Readers
Francesco Bruno, Gabby Cicio, Emma Corwin, Jennifer Liriano, Heather Molzon, Merrin Sardi, Samantha Stern
Creative Nonfiction Readers
Timothy Blomquist, Alisa Mentor, Amanda Saladino, Madison Wayland
Poetry Readers
Nicole Gartley, Megan Grant, Julia Merante, Sara Munjack, Joohee Park, Katie Rivito
Faculty Advisor
Rachel Hall
Production Advisor
Allison Brown
Advisory Editors
Dan DeZarn, Lucia LoTempio, Lytton Smith, Kathryn Waring
Special thanks to:
Anne Valente, Michele Feeley, the Parry family